and he whose weakness had been goaded and urged
on by so many for their own purposes, was desolate and alone.

Chapter 74

Me Dennis, having been made prisoner late in the evening, was removed to
a neighbouring round-house for that night, and carried before a justice
for examination on the next day, Saturday. The charges against him
being numerous and weighty, and it being in particular proved, by the
testimony of Gabriel Varden, that he had shown a special desire to take
his life, he was committed for trial. Moreover he was honoured with
the distinction of being considered a chief among the insurgents, and
received from the magistrate's lips the complimentary assurance that
he was in a position of imminent danger, and would do well to prepare
himself for the worst.

To say that Mr Dennis's modesty was not somewhat startled by these
honours, or that he was altogether prepared for so flattering a
reception, would be to claim for him a greater amount of stoical
philosophy than even he possessed. Indeed this gentleman's stoicism was
of that not uncommon kind, which enables a man to bear with exemplary
fortitude the afflictions of his friends, but renders him, by way of
counterpoise, rather selfish and sensitive in respect of any that happen
to befall himself. It is therefore no disparagement to the great officer
in question to state, without disguise or concealment, that he was at
first very much alarmed, and that he betrayed divers emotions of fear,
until his reasoning powers came to his relief, and set before him a more
hopeful prospect.

In proportion as Mr Dennis exercised these intellectual qualities
with which he was gifted, in reviewing his best chances of coming off
handsomely and with small personal inconvenience, his spirits rose, and
his confidence increased. When he remembered the great estimation in
which his office was held, and the constant demand for his services;
when he bethought himself, how the Statute Book regarded him as a kind
of Universal Medicine applicable to men, women, and children, of every
age and variety of criminal constitution; and how high he stood, in
his official capacity, in the favour of the Crown, and both Houses of
Parliament, the Mint, the Bank of England, and the Judges of the land;
when he recollected that whatever Ministry was in or out, he remained
their peculiar pet and panacea, and that for his sake England stood
single and conspicuous among the civilised nations of